How The Economist’s Personalization Strategy Delivered a 160% Increase in Pageviews

Elizabeth Trombino

Elizabeth Trombino

While many of the world’s most historic publishers have struggled to maintain relevancy as consumer attention shifts to digital and mobile, The Economist has thrived as a true 21st century publisher. While much has changed since The Economist was founded in 1843, this publisher has successfully reinvented itself in lockstep with the shift from print to digital and mobile. With many publishers continuing to struggle with monetization and digital engagement, The Economist’s moves to prioritize retention, digital and mobile are ensuring that its legacy will continue on and perhaps inspire other media enterprises to innovate.

Stepping Into the Era of Digital Publishing

Legacy and modern publishers alike face challenges in driving revenue, increasing pageviews, and engaging the “always-addressable” consumer. In a recent Q4 2015 Sailthru customer study comprising over 125 publishers, 69% of media leaders said they wanted to increase visits for email subscribers, and 55% cited a general goal of increasing repeat visits to their sites.

Personalization, dynamic content recommendations and microsegment targeting — all used together across email and web — is the silver bullet to improving on these metrics and meeting both short-term and long-term revenue goals.

Starting in 2014, The Economist partnered with Sailthru and began personalizing each subscriber’s experience in email and on Economist.com. Since then, The Economist has far exceeded their goals for increasing both the quantity and quality of traffic from email marketing efforts, in addition to further increasing depth of site visits and visit frequency through website personalization.

Sailthru + Economist Results

Our work has also been recognized by the Association of Online Publishers as one of media’s “best technology partners” after delivering:

160% lift in web pageviews from email subscribers

79% increase in pageviews per click

17% increase in CTR

Anna Rawling, The Economist’s VP of Digital Engagement and Retention had this to say: “We’re using Sailthru to serve readers more of the articles we know they like to read. The results of personalization are impressive, delivering a 160 percent increase in web pageviews while at the same time being infinitely more customer and resource-friendly.”